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First-ever pinball tournament in Scranton

A classic arcade game is bringing players from across Pennsylvania to Lackawanna county.

SCRANTON, Pa. — Scranton's first-ever pinball tournament took place at Bartari on Adams Avenue. Filling the restaurant and arcade with competitors across Pennsylvania. 

Co-owner John Heim shares how this event shows the passion within the pinball community.

A lot of people think Pinball is just wacking balls around but there is gameplay and strategy behind it,” said Heim.

“Scranton is naturally between a few pretty large Pinball Meccas. I mean, you have Philly, you have New York City, you have Middletown, New York. And there's a lot of collectors, a lot of players in between here and there, so I feel like it's natural to have something like that in Scranton,” explained Daniel Brennan, Tournament Director. 

With the arcade housing at least a dozen pinball machines, Bartari partnered up with Daniel Brennan, who's traveled across the country as a pinball player to grow the local pinball community.

“We're seeing some veteran players, and then we're seeing some brand new players have never actually played in a tournament before and never really done competitive pinball before. So it's a mix of both, but there's opportunity for everybody to sort of come away the way we have the tournaments,” Brennan added.

And after today's success, both are planning to create more events to bring more pinball players into downtown Scranton.

“The ultimate goal is to really have these on a semi-regular basis. Maybe have larger tournaments like this every few months in the area and then on a monthly basis do a smaller tournament that local players can come and enjoy it,” said Brennan. 

 “Our goal is to collaborate with other businesses downtown, place pinballs at their locations, and your first round will be at business A and your second round will be at business B, and then the final round will be here at Bartari for all the prizes,” Heim said.

Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.  

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